I. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a heat pump apparatus and more specifically to the design of a fuel burning heat pump system which utilizes an ejector device as the compressor mechanism therein.
II. Discussion of the Prior Art
Many forms of heat pumps are known in the prior art for removing heat energy from one location and dissipating it in another location. As such, the same device may be used for either heating or cooling a particular enclosed volume, depending upon the direction of flow employed. In a typical, prior art, installation used for heating an enclosed volume, a refrigerant is made to flow from an evaporator disposed outside of the volume, through a compressor and to a condenser disposed within the volume to be heated. When operating in a cooling mode, however, the direction of refrigerant flow is reversed such that the heat exchanger formerly acting as the evaporator now becomes the condenser and the heat exchanger formerly acting as the condenser serves as the evaporator. In the majority of prior art heat pumps, the compressor comprises an electric motor driven pump which receives refrigerant vapors at a lower pressure and which delivers gaseous refrigerant at a substantially higher pressure to a heat exchanger where liquefaction of the refrigerant takes place.
It is also well known in the art that motor driven pump-type compressors may be replaced with a so-called jet compressor in which the liquid refrigerant is introduced into a boiler where it generates a vapor under high pressure which is delivered to the ejector. As this high pressure fluid passes through the nozzle, it creates a low pressure zone within the nozzle effective to draw gaseous refrigerant from an evaporator heat exchanger where it becomes mixed with the primary flow and transferring heat energy picked up at the evaporator unit to the condenser heat exchanger.